
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, October 21, 1993                   TAG: 9310210138
SECTION: BUSINESS                    PAGE: B8   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                LENGTH: Short

IS FAST FOOD STILL TOO FATTY?

A consumer group charged Wednesday that McDonald's, Burger King and Wendy's are not frying their foods in 100 percent vegetable oil as they profess but are using heart-damaging shortening instead.

Margo Wootan, a nutritional biochemist for the Center for Science in the Public Interest, said the total amount of cholesterol-raising fat is as high as when fast-food chains were frying their products in animal fats.

Michael Jacobson, the group's director, said the hydrogenation process creates high levels of trans fatty acids.

"Hydrogenated shortening clearly is not vegetable oil, and the difference is measured in clogged arteries and coronary heart disease, the No. 1 cause of death in America," he said.

The group asked that the FDA require that "partially hydrogenated" oil be listed as "partially saturated" shortening.

A representative of Burger King said the company "will certainly look at any new evidence regarding the nutritional composition of our product."

McDonald's maintained "they have absolutely the wrong information about McDonald's."

by CNB